1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat for a vehicle and more particularly to a seat for a vehicle having a walk-in mechanism provided for a person getting on a rear seat.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 5, many types of walk-in mechanisms mounted on a seat of a vehicle have a walk-in lever 8 projected rearward from a lower end of a seat back S1. The walk-in lever 8 is interlocked with a reclining mechanism of the seat back S1. When the walk-in lever 8 is pressed down, the reclining mechanism is unlocked. Thereby the seat back S1 is tilted forward by an urging force as shown with a two-dot chain line of FIG. 5. When the seat back S1 is tilted forward, a part of the seat back S1 contacts a slide-unlocking lever (not shown in FIG. 5). Thereby the seat back S1 can be slid forward.
FIG. 6 shows a known tip-up type seat for sufficiently securing a baggage room in a rear part of a vehicle. The tip-up type seat can be moved forward, with a seat cushion S2 tipped up toward the seat back S1. Even though the conventional walk-in mechanism is used in the tip-up type seat, the seat back S1 cannot be tilted forward because the seat cushion S2 tipped up interferes with the seat back S1. Thereby a slide mechanism cannot be unlocked. Such being the case, as shown in FIG. 6, an operation lever 9 is projected rearward from a lower end of the seat back S1, with the operation lever 9 spaced at a certain interval from the walk-in lever 8. The slide mechanism can be unlocked by pressing down the operation lever 9. But it is necessary to mount the two levers 8, 9 on the lower end of the seat back S1. Thus this construction is disadvantageous in terms of the cost and the space required for mounting the two levers 8, 9.
In the walk-in mechanism is proposed and disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-4971 to solve the above-described problem, by using a wire, a reclining release lever and a slide-unlocking lever are connected to a pulling operation type single wire provide data lower portion of the seat back. Thereby the seat back can be reclined and the seat can be slid by the single operation lever.
In the above-described walk-in mechanism, the seat can be slid by operating the single operation lever regardless of whether or not the seat back cannot be tilted forward because the seat cushion of the tip-up seat is tipped up. But the walk-in mechanism has a problem that it is necessary to keep pulling the operation lever in a normal walk-in operation which is performed to tilt the seat back forward. Therefore the walk-in mechanism has a low degree of operability.